As the COVID-19 pandemic has progressed – seemingly with few signs of letting up – customers’ need for support has escalated. Customers who may ordinarily shop in stores are now doing more online, curbside and delivery shopping than ever before, increasing the need for support with these unfamiliar activities. Shortages of consumer and industrial products have led to a greater need for customer support as well. At the same time, many companies with call centers have gone virtual to protect their employees and avoid absenteeism due to illness.
This expansion of home-based call center work has left many companies wondering how to properly monitor their remote workforces. Some organizations have switched to cloud-based performance management and workforce management solutions. Others are using unified communications platforms for regular meetings and check-ins with workers. The question for many employers and employees becomes: how much surveillance is necessary, and when does it become intrusive?
Last week, NBC News reported that some call center workers in Colombia are being pressured to sign a contract that lets their employer install cameras in their homes to monitor work performance. Six employees in Colombia for business process outsourcing giant Teleperformance (News - Alert) told NBC News investigative journalists they are concerned about signing the agreement.
“The contract allows constant monitoring of what we are doing, but also our family,” a Bogota-based Teleperformance worker who supports the company’s contract with Apple (News - Alert) told investigators. “I think it’s really bad. We don’t work in an office. I work in my bedroom. I don’t want to have a camera in my bedroom.”
Nevertheless, many workers have signed the contract because they fear job loss, and some workers have been told explicitly that they would be removed from their positions if they did not sign.
“The concerns of the workers, who all spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media, highlight a pandemic-related trend that has alarmed privacy and labor experts: As many workers have shifted to performing their duties at home, some companies are pushing for increasing levels of digital monitoring of their staff in an effort to recreate the oversight of the office at home,” according to the NBC piece.
While the camera mandate is not limited to Teleperformance, at least one country said “no” to the mandated installation of cameras at the homes of call center workers. Last year, Teleperformance workers in Albania complained to their country’s Information and Data Protection Commissioner about the company’s proposal mandating video monitoring. The Commissioner eventually rules that companies could not use webcams to monitor Albanian call center workers in their homes.